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November 24, 2009 9:22 AM

McMurray Closes the Chapter on 2009 Season with an 18-Place Finish at Homestead in his Crown Royal Ford

Homestead, FL (November 24, 2009) – The 2009 Sprint Cup Series season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway, also known as Ford Championship Weekend, is an important weekend for Roush Fenway Racings’ stable of drivers. Performing well during this weekend holds even more meaning than normal due to Ford’s entitlement of the race weekend events. Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 26 Crown Royal Ford Fusion, was not only closing out his 2009 season, but he was closing the chapter of his time with Roush Fenway. NASCAR mandated that the organization must cut down from five teams to four teams for the 2010 season, and McMurray was forced to leave. McMurray earned a third-place finish the last time he had raced at Homestead in 2008, and he was looking to repeat a similar result for Sunday’s Ford 400 event to close out the season.

McMurray qualified eleventh during Friday afternoon’s qualifying session after he posted a fast lap time of 31.425 seconds in his No. 26 machine. Despite the promising qualifying effort, McMurray found himself with a loose-handling race car for the remainder of the weekend’s practice sessions and he told his team that they needed to help him find a bit more grip before Sunday’s race.

The challenge of racing at Homestead-Miami Speedway is that teams only visit the facility once a year, so practice sessions are important times for the drivers and crew chiefs to discover things about the track that they might not have in seasons prior. Also, since Sunday’s Ford 400 started later in the afternoon, that meant that teams would have to plan some adaptability into their cars in order to allow the cars to adapt to the changing track conditions once the sun set.

Sunday’s final race of the year took the green flag at 3:34 p.m. EST as McMurray rolled off from the eleventh position in his Crown Royal Ford. Skies overhead were sunny and temperatures were in the low-80’s, but with high humidity levels. Despite the warm temperatures on the track, McMurray drove his way up to eighth within the opening ten laps of the race. During lap eleven, McMurray radioed in to his crew chief Donnie Wingo that the car was loose in, loose off, and that it wasn’t turning well in the banked turns of the track. The loose handling conditions made it difficult for McMurray to aggressively drive into the turns on the preferred lines to challenge for position.

The first series of pit stops began to cycle through the field around lap 48 under green. Wingo opted to pit on lap 52 for four tires, fuel, and an air pressure adjustment. McMurray was 13th at the time and had asked his team to tighten him up a bit more.

Following the restart, McMurray radioed in to his Crown Royal team that the car was much tighter at the start of the run, but then got looser as the laps went on. The first caution of the day came on lap 82 and Wingo opted to make another round of air pressure adjustments along with some wedge in to the rear of the car. The No. 26 Ford restarted 15th on lap 86 but quickly dropped a few positions on the leader board. McMurray called in to his crew that the last round of changes hadn’t helped and had actually taken away his ability to turn in the corners.

Fortunately, a caution on lap 101 allowed McMurray to return to pit road under yellow while the team reversed the last round of changes they had made on the prior stop. McMurray held on to the 15th position over the course of the next run, until a pit stop on lap 118 under yellow found the team dropping back to 28th. Several cars had opted to stay out and not pit, but the Crown Royal team opted to pit for four tires, fuel, and an air pressure and wedge adjustment. McMurray was able to climb his way back up through the field, but he kept telling his team that he was still looking for more grip.

The Crown Royal Ford climbed as high as 12th on lap 222. Unfortunately, loose handling plagued the team in the closing laps of the race, and McMurray was forced to leave Homestead with an 18th-place finish Sunday evening.

“This wasn’t the finish we were looking for, but we just didn’t have the grip we needed today,” said McMurray after the race. “We just had a really loose car all afternoon and we tried a lot of adjustments to get it turning better, but it was a handful today. It seemed that our car would start out alright at the beginning of the runs, but just got looser and looser as the laps went on. I’m really proud of our Crown Royal team and all the effort they put in all season long, we had our ups and downs, but we never gave up.”

Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s Ford 400 at Homestead-Miami Speedway while Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-three finishers. Jimmie Johnson claimed his fourth consecutive Sprint Cup Series Championship with a commanding lead over Mark Martin who finished the season 141 points behind Johnson. McMurray finished the season 22nd in the driver point standings for 2009.

The Sprint Cup Series will return to action in 2010 with the season-opener at Daytona International Speedway for the 52nd annual Daytona 500 on Sunday, February 14, 2010.

NEXT UP:
Daytona 500
2.5-mile Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, FL
Sunday, February 14, 2010

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